Someday they might be good

Gunther had to return to the Apple store to buy some 5.25” floppy disks for his new Apple IIe.

On his way to the mall Gunther thought about his correspondence chess game. In the recent Golden Knights tournament he had lost all his games. So he was sure to lose this one because his opponent, an old college chum, was much better than the lowly players he had played in the tournament’s Class D section.

Already his position was glum. He had overlooked a very nice combination that had won his opponent the exchange for a pawn – and he was only a few moves out of the opening book. It was going to be a long game. Maybe he should resign now and spare himself the agony and all the wasted time.

Whoops! He almost smashed into the old lady driving home with the groceries. Who said that chess wasn’t dangerous. He quickly parked the car in a spot away from the other cars, just to be safe.

The door buzzed when he opened it – he looked around: the new Apple store was fresh and clean. On the way to the floppy disk counter he passed across the software section. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the title “Sargon 4”. Stopping to look at the box, he found that it was a chess program for the Apple. “These things are junk”, he thought – “Even I can beat that Fidelity chess tabletop computer my wife bought me a couple of years ago, and I stink”.

Still, he did not have any games for his Apple and he did like chess. He tucked the box under his arm to purchase with the floppies.

“I may as well take back the Bishop so I am only down the exchange”, he thought. “What else is there to do?”

“What else…”

The shiny package was on the table next to the chess board. Hmm. Computers were so bad at chess that no one thought to make rules to prevent correspondence players from using them to help find moves.

He opened the package. Inside a card read:

HOW TO INSTALL SARGON 4

The computer was not far from the chess table. Gunther installed the program, but how did one enter an existing chess game and see what Sargon would play? Half an hour later (when in doubt, read the instructions!) he had the position in front of him and the computer was thinking at about a million instructions per second!

The computer calculation was measured in ply. Each ply was a half move. After a few minutes Sargon 4 was up to 7 ply and it said the best move was 19…Bd6. Gunther had not even thought of that move! White had to stop the mate on h2 and had no time to protect his bishop. That would weaken White’s king!

From that point on Gunther consulted his computer on every move to help him with the game. It continued:

19...Bd6 20.g3 Rxa8 21.cxb5 axb5 22.Qd4 Bc6+ 23.Kg1

But now Gunther was getting desperate. He either had to retreat or trade queens, and either way White’s extra material was going to become more bothersome. Sargon was not any great help, but he did not have to reply until morning. Morning…

That gave Gunther an idea.

He let Sargon, still at 7 ply, continue running, but turned off the monitor. Maybe if it ran all night it could save him. So far using it must have boosted his playing strength by 500 rating points – what could it do if it thought all night?

In the morning Gunther turned on the monitor. Sargon was up to 9 ply! And there was the move:

23…b4

What good did that do? Gunther did not understand, but felt that he had nothing to lose by playing that move, so he sent 23…b4.

His college buddy took longer than usual to reply. As expected White’s move was the queen trade 24.Qxe5.

After Gunther duly recaptured 24...Bxe5 White retreated with 25.Nd1 and Sargon told Gunther to centralize his bishop with 25…Bd5.

Gunther was still down the exchange for a pawn but he was threatening 26…Bxb3. To his inexperienced eyes it looked like his bishops were almost as good as Black’s rooks. But that is impossible. Bishops are worth three pawns and rooks are worth five. After a few days came the reply 26.Re1.

Gunther really did not know what to do, so he need to rely on Sargon again. It seemed a long time ago that he was questioning whether the computer could really play decent chess!

Sargon suggested the strange looking26…Ng4. But that seemed to be very dangerous. Couldn’t White play some removal of the guard trick with h3 and win his bishop? After all, the knight was the only piece guarding the attacked bishop. Just to be sure he put the computer on overnight. However, when he woke up, Gunther found that Sargon liked 26…Ng4 even more. So 26…Ng4 it was!

The next postcard he received read “Aha! Old chum – you have been playing too well, but I knew you might screw up! You thought I would fall for 27.h3 Bxg3, but my move is better.” The move it gave was 27.Nf2.

Gunther at first felt an old familiar tingle of fear, but later felt much better when Sargon not only championed 27…Bxb2 but also indicated that he was now winning easily. Gunther had always thought that a rook was worth a bishop and two pawns but somehow he seemed to be way ahead. Even he could see it now.

White’s next postcard had no boasting, just 28.Rad1.

By this point Gunther was starting to have mixed feelings. At first he had used the computer as a joke, but now he trusted it so much that he wondered if it were fair that he was using it. He also began to feel that the game was no longer his, and that the credit for beating his college chum belonged to Sargon, whoever he/it really was. Still, he did not want to lose this game, so he duly sent Sargon’s (not his!) reply, 28…Ne5.

The game was now in the bag – it was now a matter of technique. Gunther did not have it, but Sargon had it in spades: 29.Re3 Nc4 30.Red3 Rxa2 31.Nd4 Ne5 32.Re3 f6 33.Ne2 Nf3+ 34.Kg2 Nd4+ 35.Kh3 e5 36.Ne4 Be6+ Actually Sargon liked 36…Ra3 a little better but Gunther checked and saw that it felt that this check was winning, too. After all, he had to play his move occasionally to be fair, right?

37.Kg2 Bc3 38.N4xc3 bxc3 39.Rxd4 exd4 40.Rxe6 Kf7.

The final postcard read: “I resign. Who helped you…!?”

Gunther definitely felt some satisfaction he had not felt after any other chess game, computer help or otherwise. He thought, “Geez! Each computer model comes out faster and faster. Someday these computer programs are going to be really good. Maybe someday they might even be able to beat our club champion, an expert who claims that computers will never be able good enough at chess to beat him or any other player rated over 2000. I sure would like to live long enough to see the look on his face…”